U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,859,204; 4,867,700; 4,915,650 and 4,900,264 disclose electrical terminations of terminals to ends of flat power cable, and interconnections between respective flat power cables. The cable is of the type entering commercial use for transmitting electrical power of for example 75 amperes nominal, and includes a flat conductor one inch wide and about 0.020 inches thick with an extruded insulated coating of about 0.0004 to 0.008 inches thick over each surface with the cable having a total thickness averaging about 0.034 inches. The cable could also have a pair of parallel spaced coplanar flat conductors having insulation extruded therearound and therebetween, defining power and return paths for electrical power transmission. Similar cable could have a thinner conductor members and have a total thickness of about 0.017 inches.
In U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 4,900,264 and 07/454,656 filed Dec. 21, 1989, are disclosed electrical interconnections of one dual conductor flat power cable to another, forming a splice or tap interconnection between the cables which mechanically joins the cables and electrically interconnects the respective ones of the pairs of cable conductors. The cables are first stacked in parallel one atop the other, with the ones of the conductors of each cable to be interconnected being adjacent each other. In certain embodiments thereof a main cable and a tap cable exit one end of the interconnection, while only the main cable exits the opposed end; thus there are two cable thicknesses exiting one end while only one cable thickness exits the other end
It is desired that the housing means be adapted to compensate for one or two cable thicknesses, and also for variations in the thicknesses of each cable, within a limited range of thicknesses.
It is desired that the housing means structurally engage the opposed major cable surfaces at the cable exits at all thicknesses of exiting cable within the range.
It is further desired that the engagement be under compression to provide strain relief benefits.